February 1, 2009

The press release from the CPSC on Jan 30 2009 was somewhat deceiving. It was not much of a stay of enforcement and will not assist companies whose products likely contain lead over the 600ppm limit which goes into effect Feb 10, 2009. What is most interesting is Congress is now trying to blame the CPSC for the mess, but it was congress who created the 600 ppm lead ban and the February 10, 2008 compliance date with very little clarification. It was relying on the CPSC to get it implemented via implementing regulations between August 2008 when the bill passed and February when the lead limits come into effect. At this point the best thing that the bike related companies can do is write to the CPSC directly asking them to act on the BPSA emergency petition filed with the CPSC last week and ask that they act on it before Feb 10. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is asking for less focused relief (mostly arguing the economic effects which may work better with Congress than the CPSC) and their petition is not based on a scientific testing approach like the BPSA's. Here is the NAM petition: http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/stay101.pdf We feel the BPSA petition is better and more targeted and is more likely to have success with the CPSC. At this time writing to Congress is not the best approach but that may be required next week if the CPSC fails to act on the BPSA petition. In the latest developments, Congress has asked President Obama to ask Acting Chairman Nancy Nord to step down to the confusion that has resulted from this law. The letter can be seen here

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